Once Upon a Winter  Agape and the Fauns
by KitsuneYamato -Rika
Summary: In Winter Tundra, there was a little dragon that wasn't like the others... She was the pan flute playing dragon.


[Once upon a Winter, the snow was falling lightly on the Earth, covering it with its soft, candid mantle. All the creatures were protected in their warm shelters, except some fauns, who were still around enjoying the day and filling it with the sounds of their pan flutes, and a little creature... A dragon]

Agape was looking at them, hidden behind a frozen bush, trembling.

She wasn't like the other dragons. She was born... Differently.

First of all, she wasn't able to breath fire, or ice, or any other element. Her wings, feathery and white, were too small to let her fly. Her eyes were letting her seeing only shadows, shadows of a World she always wanted to discover.

But she had an unique ability: the ability to heal the wounds of the others, and to warm the hearts of the creatures.

[One upon a Winter, the little Agape was burning by desire, desire to join that happy company, to feel like anyone else at least once in her life. Because she never was considered "normal" by the other dragons. Because she wasn't a dragon, in their eyes...]

One young faun, walking around, noticed the little Agape, spying desirous his friends playing their music. The faun saluted the dragon, who jumped away for the surprise, between the other fauns. They stopped to sound their pan flutes and looked at her, curious and surprised as well as she.

[The faun, who's name was Augustus, introduced the dragon to his friends. She was very shy, her excited babbling made smile the fauns. There was something in her soft, sweet voice. Innocent and pure, just like a child's one]

"I... I am sorry if I disturbed you... But I loved so much your music that I was wondering if I could join you..."

And those were her exact words. They were all so happy! A dragon playing a pan flute, surely not something that you see every day. The fauns built her her own instrument, and taught her how to use it. Maybe she wasn't "good" as dragon, but what about being a faun?

[Agape loved them all, and so did they. All together they wandered in the many Worlds, evoking astonishment and curiosity, satisfying the little dragon's desire to visit new places and, especially, to feel accepted. This all lasted some months, until...]

In a frozen realm, however, there was a fairy queen.

She was both angry and jealous because of the popularity of that original company, her icy heart corrupted by anger: alone, in her castle made of crystal, looking at how a creature like a dragon was more loved and accepted than her, that was surely more beautiful and rich of talents!

The Queen, that turned herself into a cold, cruel wintery wind, blew on Augustus's eyes, putting into his eyes bewitched thorns of crystal.

The faun suddenly changed his personality, becoming more like the fairy: evil, jealous and egoist. Agape was very worried, and so were the other friends.

[Some days ago, Augustus attracted the little dragon in a solitary glade. The snow was like a soft carpet under his hooves, his eyes two fragments of ice...]

"Augustus! Where are you...!"

"I am here, I was waiting for you"

"I am so worried... You seem so different! What happened to you?"

When she came near to him, he jumped on her, stabbing her with the knife he was hiding behind his back. She was surprised and frightened, but she was too weak to resist him. He stabbed her in the heart and the throat, merciless, while her blood was dying the snow all around.

And when he saw her wan body on the ground, the thorns in his eyes melted away. The Queen's wrath was satisfied, the wicked spell was broken. He saw what he did, and he fell desperate near to her, with the intention of remove his own life... But a voice interrupted him. With her last breaths, Agape said...

"I forgive you, Augustus... You didn't know what you was doing... I am not angry with you..."

Then, she closed her eyes forever.

The faun picked up her lifeless body with delicacy, and took it in the place where they first met.

Under the bush, there was a little dragon now. A little, sleeping dragon that wouldn't have awakened. But around it, there was a crown of white roses.

[And so it ends the story of Agape, the little pan flute playing Dragon. But don't be too sad for her. Maybe, high in the sky, she still plays her pan flute, cheered by many other heavenly creatures, finally equal to everyone, as the Death makes everyone equal. And when you're on a windy, wintery day, listen carefully: maybe you can hear the sound of her pan flute in the peaceful silence...]


End file.
